(This is a 2-part post chronicling my attempts to take healthy, balanced lunches to work from home, that also fall within my budget and are outlets for variety and creativity.)
‘Immaculate’ is one word that comes to mind when describing the way the Japanese tend to do…well, just about anything. They take pride in applying creative enterprise for satisfactory and productive results and are simply impeccable in their devotion (perhaps I make it all sound a bit less human; but amazingly enough, that is how perfect they are) to the task at hand. And that, combined with a homogeneous principle of economic prudence and healthy lifestyles, they are perhaps the most enviable people in the world.
The examples I can quote to back me up are innumerable; but this being a food blog, I’ll stick with that department. And in particular, with the ideology of the Bento. Nothing combines all the aforementioned qualities like the Bento.
A Bento is simply a meal in a box. While that seems a bit arbitrary, it really is only that much. However, what it is not, is a box beholding items thrown together randomly, without any criteria. Assembling and putting together a proper Bento with guaranteed satisfactory results takes time, patience, and a whole lot of practice. All this, in addition to mastering the ratio of food items: 3:1:2 carbohydrate:protein:vegetable.
(Currently, this seems to be the ratio that Japanese nutritionists recommend for those trying to incorporate a little bit of dieting into their lifestyles; but like anything else, these are basic guidelines, and should not be considered gospel.)
In Japan, everybody from elementary school children to office workers take a packed Bento from home for lunch. If not, they avail themselves of the numerous Bento facilities en route to work or on their lunch break. And in the case of the elementary school children, the mothers try and outdo each other with their Bento art; creating sickeningly cute faces on their Onigiris to cutting out Sakura petals out of vegetables and so on. While mothers may or may not do this on a daily basis, there is a whole new trend going on out there (site only in Japanese); called Chara-ben (an amalgam of Character and Bento), referring to foodstuff being shaped in the form of favorite cartoon/comic characters. (This book is another great example compilation of Bento art gone over the edge.)
While I’ll be damned if I’m going to have to bite into a bunny face Onigiri, I am a huge fan of the Bento and have been trying off and on for a couple years now to incorporate it into my daily life. I believe, after several failed attempts, I have finally come to do so. If not anything else, the allure was the 3:1:2 ratio. Trying to put together a lunch that would incorporate all the necessary nutrients, in all the right amounts, while maintaining a budget and coming up with new dishes everyday with the little time I didn’t have in the morning before rushing off to work seemed like a Herculean task. Even after a few attempts to cook foods in advance over the weekend, it didn’t hold up at first; as both S. and I got tired real fast eating the same dishes for the whole week. Forget cutting cars out of eggs! Didn’t take me very long to give up.
It was around my 10th or so failed attempt that I realized how much I’d been underestimating the power of the freezer. And how, preparing just 1 or 2 items that tend to freeze well, apart from rice, over the weekend will take care of 2 of the 3 components of the meal for the entire week. After that, the daily cooking would be limited to simply 1 dish-a vegetable.
The next challenge was sticking to food temperature guidelines. Food at room temperature (4° to 140°F) is considered to be the ‘danger zone’; as bacteria tend to flourish at that. While San Francisco averages at about 60°F (except for those freak heat waves ever year, when it peaks at 90°), it does still pose a threat in that department. And then there was something about frozen foods, once thawed, attracting more microbes thanks to all the moisture. The solution? Reducing the time foods, whether raw or cooked, remain at room temperature, and making use of the refrigerator at work. And of course, reheating the heat-inclined foods before consumption. God bless the microwave!
Simple enough, yes? Not quite. Next came packing those said foods neatly and in order. I’ve never been one for packing anything; in fact, whenever I travel, I grumble and groan and put it off until the last minute (you can imagine then, how much I’d be fond of moving!); and this was no different: It had to be compact, organized by texture, and well, only in this case, the inclination for heat. Meaning, I couldn’t very well pack a salad along with the rice; or else I wouldn’t be able to reheat the latter; thus risking consuming bacteria.
Oof! (I wasn’t kidding when I said I tend to make things more complicated than they are.)
Continued HERE.
